Kukla's Korner Hockey

Entries with the tag: charlotte checkers

Rutherford said he plans on making the 150-mile trip from Raleigh next Wednesday to watch DiPietro play in person against the Hershey Bears. Ironically, Rutherford said he got to know DiPietro during collective bargaining sessions during last season's lockout; DiPietro was on the NHLPA's negotiating committee.

"I liked him," said Rutherford, himself a former NHL goalie. "I liked him as a goalie over the years. He's had a very unlucky career. He's had to deal with several injuries, so I feel once he gets in shape that he's a capable NHL goalie. How long is that going to take and is he going to at some point end up with the Hurricanes or will it end up being with another NHL team? We were going through the list of goalies and he was the goalie that we were the most familiar with."

Rutherford said if anything were to happen to Justin Peters, who has gone 1-5-0 while backstopping the Hurricanes in the absence of Ward and Khudobin, the Hurricanes would "accelerate" the timetable on which they want DiPietro potentially to arrive.

"It's always hard for any player, and I think especially a goalie, to miss training camp," Rutherford said. "You just get further and further behind. Yeah, he hasn't had many practices. He had one practice and he got thrown into the game. The two games he's played he's been OK. He has a couple more levels that he's capable of getting to and that's what we’re watching."

A day late and a dollar short (well, several hundred dollars short, if I’m going to be honest, after a theft earlier this week set me completely off my rocker and wreaked havoc on my weekly schedule along multiple avenues), it’s the latest edition of News from the Farm, where we take a close look at the AHL affiliates for each of the NHL’s five Southeast Division teams.

This week, before we get into game results and our standard stat packs, how about some actual news?

According to several reports (including this one by Kevin Oklobzija from theDemocrat and Chronicle, straight out of Rochester), the Florida Panthers’ relationship with the AHL Rochester Americans will not be extended beyond this season. Rochester president Lewis Staats has said the organization will be exploring all options and they will have some with multiple affiliation deals between NHL and AHL clubs expiring at season’s end.

If you’re looking for an update on Aunt Bessie’s cow, or information on last summer’s harvest, look on.

If, however, you’re looking for news and information on the top minor league affiliates of the NHL’s Southeast Division clubs, you’re in the right place.

In years past, I would run News from Norfolk as a regular feature on Tampa Bay’s AHL affiliate and now, News from the Farm will feature the Charlotte Checkers, Chicago Wolves, Hershey Bears and Rochester Americans along with the Admirals, to follow the progress of the Southeast’s future stars at the AHL level (and, at least for now, Michael Nylander and Sheldon Souray too).

We’ll look at game results, standings, league and team-leading scorers and goaltenders, pick a player of the week, have a glance at the schedule ahead and keep you abreast of any other developments for these players and their clubs.

Thursday seemed as good a day as any for this weekly feature, so that’s where it will be slotted in to start (and this week, as the first installment, there’s plenty of AHL action to catch up on).

Head coach Derek Wilkinson, Mann and I meet in the coaches’ office three hours before the game to talk strategy. Wilkinson offered me a one-game gig as an assistant. I get to see the game from his perspective, and the Checkers get publicity.

In the office is a desk, two laptops, a sofa and a cooler with one Coke and at least 15 cans of Bud Light.

At 2:30, we walk down the hall to the locker room to address the players. Mann stands in front of a dry-erase board and talks about inside hockey stuff such as PKs, the F3 pushing to the neutral zone, CFLs and PFKLs. As we leave, a player yells, “Maybe coach Tom would like to put something on the board.”

There’s a tradition. Somebody will write on the board the amount of money he or she will donate to the team’s fines/party fund if the team wins. I write $20, which makes me the team’s new most popular coach.